Fox Hunt
by teaberry
Summary: There's horror in this chase and no thrill in getting caught. Still running? Implied NamineAlice.


Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

**fox hunt**

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_**the fuse is lit and it's already burning**_**.  
**_**the clock is there, you just can't see it turning.**_

.

"He's been coming around a lot lately, hasn't he?"

Namine glances up with a blink and frown, and her eyes follow the direction of Alice's gaze. Up to the striped cat lounging on a far branch and peering steadily down at them. Though daylight wraps the rest of the area in a warm embrace, he has found his own corner of shadows in the thick canopy, yellow eyes mad and bright in the swath of blackness. The downward pull of her lips deepens.

"Yes... At least he's quiet now though. You should hear him when he manages to corner me by myself. Talks my ear off." She watches as a slow grin creeps across his cheshire face.

"Really?" Alice, not surprisingly, seems amused and slightly puzzled by this revelation. "Does he say anything interesting?"

"If, by interesting, you mean completely nonsensical, then yes."

"Oh, well..." Namine watches the other blonde girl wave a dismissive hand and swallow a sip of her tea. "Nonsensical is never particularly interesting here, what with_ everything_ being fairly nonsensical."

"Someone as sane as me must be twice the bore, then. However do you put up with me?" Namine's demurely teasing smile and tone draw a chiming laugh from Alice. The sound feels good in her ears, and feels even better knowing she's the cause of it.

Everything around Alice is warm, and the only colors Namine makes herself are ones she wants to.

"No, you see, it's the things that make sense, the ordinary things that are interesting. Strange, even. Their ordinariness makes them distinctly _out_ of the ordinary." Alice giggles at her own tongue twister way of talking.

Namine grins and they both fall into a comfortable silence as Alice cuts a small cake. The Nobody likes this charade, the word _normal _a sweet falsity that doesn't provoke any of the guilt that it should.

There is a small, distant bubble of laughter. She eyes the Cheshire Cat over the rim of her teacup, unable to meet the wide and yellow gaze that seem to grow madder by the moment.

She lays her hand over Alice's where she's resting it on their blanket, and squeezes gently.

.

**_tick tock, you'd better dodge and duck.  
you're running out of options and you're running out of luck._**

.

"Grim was a tale of blue eyes and bows, all wrapped in nooses and wires by crows." His voice is a velvet and crooning singsong. Nonsense words that she doesn't want to understand.

There's a mouse dangling limply from his claws that he's been toying with for the past hour, but he doesn't seem to be paying much attention to it now.

"Stop looking at Alice."

The Cheshire Cat turns to her with a horrible grin and says, "We seem to be the crows, little girl."

"You are, maybe." The sideways glance she gives him is wary, with a hint of resignation tendering the edges. She knows what kind of mood he's in, and knows just as well that any effort on her part to avert his attention would be useless.

Perhaps she should find it amusing that she knows him even better than Alice now.

"There are _two_ of us in this tree, last time I checked." In a trick that had made her nauseous the first time she had witnessed it, his head separates from his neck with a small push of one paw. It rolls once, drops a foot or two onto a branch below her, and lies face up so it can leer at her with lurid eyes. "Yes indeed. Two."

Namine forces herself to look away. Her gaze turns down to Alice, all blue and white clothes and blonde hair, sitting on her picnic blanket.

She should join her. The other girl is expecting her and will welcome her into that warmth and let her feel the color that she craves.

But she can still feel the burning of his cat eyes, and the lilting cackle he gives puts a sour taste in her mouth.

Her excuse the next time she visits is half baked and flimsy, but it seems to appease Alice just fine.

.

_**the curtain's coming open and you're the main show.**  
**darling, this entire stage is getting ready to blow.**_

.

Her nerves are jumping and her faux heart is skipping right along with them, pounding with adrenaline.

Yes, adrenaline, Namine assures herself. The biological replacement for the fear that can't exist.

It makes her seem like prey, she supposes, but how can she feel anything but hunted when she's alone like this? When the colors seem to dim and the sunlight seems to cast more shadows than it should.

But it's just a little further. Just a little ways until Alice's cottage will be at the edge of those trees, just a little ways just walk a little _faster_-

She stumbles, trips over something on the pathway. Her face is suddenly in the dirt and her hands scramble for purchase. One claws into the dust and grime, and the other's grasping at something oddly soft and gristly. The sensation is damp, too, she registers vaguely. And lukewarm. And before any of it really begins to process she's looking over into blue, blue, blue _and all she sees is Alice_. And the strands around it - wheat gold, perfect blonde _all she sees is Alice_ - are streaked with something dark.

There's something choking up in her throat and she doesn't know what it is, just knows that it's cold, cold, cold as_ all she sees is Alice_. It claws, crawls up her insides and as it tears out she know's it's a scream.

Though surely that anguish can't be pouring out of _her_ mouth. She's never been that good of an actress.

She whips away and shoots to her feet, the sound pulling to an end that seems premature as her mouth still hangs open to mouth it.

It isn't Alice. The cheeks are too thin and the jaw is a bit too square. The hair is longer and the eyes are smaller. Just the colors are right, and even they seem to wilt with the girl's realization.

"Goodness. Who would drop something like that in the middle of the _road_. Think they'll come back for it?" His voice is disgustingly pleasant and his smile is disgustingly mad as she gapes at him, her eyes finally tearing away from the two empty ones gazing up at her.

All she can seem to do is breathe breaths that sound more like sobs and let her hands shake.

The Cheshire Cat's head tilts, and his small laugh is quizzical. But his mad eyes are gloating. "You've got something on your hand."

She looks, stares at her stained fingers, wonders if she'll fall apart from all this trembling.

"And you're looking awfully pale. Perhaps you should borrow a bit more blood from _her_?" His tail flicks in a vague gesture towards the _head_ at Namine's feet. "Something tells me she won't mind."

She flinches, and there's that laugh again, its jeering edge more pronounced this time.

"What... What are you doing?" Namine swallows, and when she opens her mouth to speak again it doesn't sound quite as breathless. "What are you _going_ to do? Why are you threatening Alice like this?!" The words rasp slightly as her voice rises and strains.

"Alice?" He laughs again and she wants to _scream_ again. "Whatever would I want with _that_ boring girl? She's so..."

"Mad?" Her voice is faint, and she chokes down a swallow to fight the sudden dryness in her mouth, tries to tell if she's still shaking.  
_  
"No, you see, it's the things that make sense, the ordinary things that are interesting."_

"Precisely." He punctuates the word with a grin and waves a reassuring paw. "Don't look so down. _You're_ coming along nicely too."

.

**_it's not what you had expected, not what you had thought.  
but there's horror in this chase and no thrill in getting caught._**

**_still running?_**

.

**fin.**

A/N: Not sure if I'm happy with the way I ended this... but I wanted it finished.

Reviews are appreciated and adored!


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